


It Started with a Swipe

by broadwayandacoffee



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Anxiety, Depression, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Online Dating, Tree Bros, idk i'll update the tags as we go, possible drug use?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-21 17:25:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11949060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broadwayandacoffee/pseuds/broadwayandacoffee
Summary: Evan really wasn't sure what he was doing, but when he got the notification to say he had a match he couldn't help but start to dream.Basically an AU where Connor & Evan meet on Tinder and things happen!





	1. It's a Match

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic on here and the first time I've written since early high school - please forgive me if its not brilliant? I've had this idea in my head for ages and I just HAD to write it! They might be a touch OOC, but hopefully its not too bad.

Evan groaned as he looked over the profile he had spent 6 hours crafting the day before, it still wasn’t right. His main photo was him sitting under a tree, head buried deep in the 5th Harry Potter book - of course, when that was taken it was probably his sixth time reading it, but somehow it was still enrapturing with all the hidden details that don’t emerge until you’ve read the book a few times. But no, that photo was now seeming too “tumblr-hipster-chic”. Then the next photo was taken by the sign out the front of Ellison State Park, he was in his Junior-Ranger uniform, a photo his mom had made him take on his first day working there over the summer. Needless to say he hadn’t wanted to take the photo, at the time he had felt like there were a million people judging him because why was some random junior-ranger having his photo taken and he must have been somehow unable to smile that day because looking back at the photo he didn’t look too happy for someone who had been so excited to get to be around the trees and actually earn money for it.

 

The worst photo of all was his third photo in which he and Jared had gone to Comic-Con and he had a photo taken with some people dressed up as characters from Harry Potter, except he was just wearing his regular polo shirt and khakis, looking more out of place than ever amongst all the people dressed up as characters they loved. Not that he had even wanted to go, especially with all the crowds, but of course Jared didn’t ask him, he had asked Evans mom who insisted he put himself out there and meet ‘other people who are like you’ (Evan hadn’t had the heart to tell her that most people like him really didn’t want to be met!) That photo was only there because he had heard that you have to have at least three photos to have any chance of someone ‘swiping right’ and Evan wasn’t exactly known for being in front of the camera very often, and because of that he now realised he didn’t have any other options for photos to put on his profile.

 

At least his bio was kinda catchy? “Tree enthusiast. Would rather ice cream than alcohol. Please don’t be a mass murderer?” On second thought he should probably delete that last bit, that kind of makes him sound like some super anxious idiot who really shouldn’t be looking for any sort of love or companionship from people he met through an app anyway. Ok yes, that's exactly what he is, but the people of the internet don’t need to know that (yet at least…)

 

He sighed, putting his phone down on the table as the oven timer went off, he was having fish fingers for dinner. Yes, it’s the sort of meal you would expect from a 10 year old, but Evan really didn’t trust himself with the stove or anything that requires more than putting things on a tray and heating. It was really inevitable that if he attempted to cook anything complicated he would end up setting fire to something and then the house would burn down and then he would die or have to call the fire department and then he would have to talk to people and he would have a panic attack and his mum would come home and find the house in ashes and then she would be disappointed because Evan hadn’t been more careful and they would have to live with his grandma and her house smelled like old people and-

 

Evan stopped himself before his thought spiral got any worse. He knew he wasn’t meant to think like that but sometimes he just couldn’t help it. After putting on the oven mitts he carefully opened the door to the oven and pulled out the tray loaded with fish fingers, quickly turning and placing it on the stove top before removing the oven mitts and grabbing the tongs and a plate from the cabinet. Evan carefully transferred the fish fingers one at a time from the tray to his plate before taking it over to the table and sitting back down with his phone. He took in a deep breath and opened the Tinder app once again, finally deciding it was time to start swiping. He had set it to show ‘Men and Women’ because he really wasn’t all that sure of what he was looking for and figured it best to keep his options open and hope he didn’t come across any murderer/rapist/catfish types!

 

After 15 minutes of swiping he had come across a total of 42 profiles, most of which were immediate left swipes because they were either shirtless or ‘engaging in anti-social behaviour’ as his therapist would say. He had been somewhat interested in about 10 because their main photo featured reading, art, dogs or trees so he checked out the rest of their photos and their bios, deciding that 6 of them deserved a right swipe. He was just about to take his plate up and give up on Tinder for the night when a particularly interesting profile popped up on the screen.

 

_Connor, 17 | 1 mile away_

 

The main photo was the guy, Connor, standing in an open field of overgrown grass framed with the most beautiful trees Evan had ever seen. The photo must have been taken at twilight because the moon was shining brightly amongst an array of stars, illuminating the field while the mystery man was nothing but a silhouette. Even without reading the profile Evan knew he had to swipe right.

 

With that final swipe, Evan decided it would probably be a good time to put away the app and go get some homework done, he had what would probably amount to 3 hours worth of homework with AP English, Precalculus and some Environmental Science thrown in as well. He went upstairs to his bedroom, plugged in his phone and turned on his Spotify playlist of instrumental Musical Theatre songs before sitting down at his desk to get as much of his homework done as he could.

 

After a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes Evan was about to finish up his last question for precalculus when his phone buzzed. He nervously glanced at it, wondering what it could possibly be at 10:15 at night because Jared knew not to text him after 10, his mom was at work, and he never got tagged in things or really any social media notifications. He tried to focus on the last question but the nerves were getting to him. What if his mom had gotten hurt? What if she had realised she wanted a life outside of Evan and wasn’t coming home? What if she- He cut himself off again, deciding the homework could wait while he checked his phone. Gingerly pressing the lock button his phone flickered to life and his heart skipped a beat when he saw _Tinder | You have a new message from Connor._

 

He hadn’t planned this far ahead he wasn’t expecting to actually match with anyone. Swiping across the notification to open the message he realised his heart was racing. Had anyone ever died from their heart literally beating out of their chest? He stole a quick glance at the message and only got so far as “hey,” before he had to throw his phone down and make a mad dash to the bathroom to throw up.

 

Once Evan was satisfied he was no longer at risk of spilling his guts, he crept back into his bedroom to read the rest of the message, he wasn’t sure why he was creeping, its not as if Connor could tell how he was moving through the phone, and his mom wasn’t home so there was no danger of waking her, he was just much more nervous about this whole Tinder thing than he thought he would be. Picking up his phone, he read the message

 

 **Connor:** _hey, tree enthusiast huh? im guessing you like the orchard in my profile pic? ps im totally not a murderer_

 

Oh dear, oh no oh no! He must have accidentally left the mass murderer part in his bio! Now Connor would know that he wasn’t OK and that he was actually really anxious and pathetic and now Evan had once again ruined things before they had even started. “Get it together, Hansen” he muttered to himself. He knew he had to reply, Connor had probably already seen the read receipt, so he shakily typed

 

 **Evan:** _Hi, Yeah I like trees. I didn’t know that was an Orchasrd in your photo, it looks amazung! Um sorry about the murdererer comment in my bio, my mom madee me put it in._

 

Before he let himself think twice about the fact that saying his mom put in the murderer comment would probably look even worse than just admitting to being an anxious pile of pathetic he hit send. Now he just had to wait for a reply…


	2. The Question Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are messaging more and Evan accidentally makes an interesting proposition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Connor's POV - the chapters will flip between Evan & Connor's POVs.

 

Connors phone buzzed to life and a notification from Tinder popped up on the screen to tell him he had a new match. 

 

“Fuck” Connor cursed under his breath, he hadn’t been expecting to actually get any matches, heck he was only on the app because he rather enjoyed marvelling at the far-too-many shirtless guys, never actually swiping right because who could love such a colossal fuck up like himself. Except he had swiped right on this one guy, a bit of a mystery not unlike Connor himself with his main photo not even showing his face but being deeply entranced by his book - Connor was sure someone else must have taken the photo without the sandy haired guy even knowing they were there. His name was Evan, he was the same age as Connor and lived a mile away from him, something about that main photo had made Connor desperate to know more about the mystery blond, enticing him to click on his photo and see the rest of his profile. Reading Evans bio had made Connor chuckle quietly when he got to the last part about not being a murderer. He knew the school thought of him as a ‘school shooter’ type (thanks Kleinman…) but he really wasn’t all that into hurting other people or seeing them suffer. 

 

Clicking into the app Connor knew the match had to be Evan and the thought made his stomach flip. Evan was so cute and almost perfect, yes he was obviously a little anxious and probably didn’t really want to be on Tinder, but he was. And he had matched with Connor - the guy who just had a weirdly artsy shot of his silhouette standing in the Autumn Smiles Orchard, a black & white of him smoking a joint while staring out the window and a bio instructing the reader to “ignore the stars in your eyes”. Connor was convinced Evan had made some kind of mistake by swiping right, but still figured it was worth a shot to send the cute sandy haired boy a message and after starting a few times he finally settled on a message and hit send. Not entirely sure whether he should wait to see if Evan messaged back or not he switched over to Tumblr and began mindlessly scrolling before his phone buzzed again.

 

**Evan:** _Hi, Yeah I like trees. I didn’t know that was an Orchasrd in your photo, it looks amazung! Um sorry about the murdererer comment in my bio, my mom madee me put it in._

 

Connor couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that he clearly made the boy nervous, at least judging from all the typos in his message. But now he had a bigger problem to worry about, what in the world was he going to respond with? He wanted to respond saying that the orchard was the Autumn Smiles Apple Orchard and that he would take Evan there, but he knew that would be way too forward and probably scare the boy off. So instead he opted to ask what book he was reading in his profile picture.

 

**Connor:** _ its a pretty cool place, i like to go there and read. speaking of, what book are you reading in your photo?  _

 

**Evan:** _It’s Hharry Potter and the Order of ther Phoenixs. I’ve read it several tiems now, but I really like it._

 

Evan had texted back almost immediately, evidently Connor had been right to assume he was the kind of guy who needed people to text back pretty quickly otherwise he would probably get even more anxious. But he wasn’t making things easy for Connor by not asking questions, so Connor came up with an idea

 

**Connor:** _ cool, thats actually my favourite of the harry potter books _

 

**Connor:** _ i have an idea, lets play a game I like to call the question game _

 

**Evan:** _???_

 

**Connor:** _ basically we take turns asking each other questions, the weirder the better and you have to answer the questions you ask as well. we both get 1 ‘no questions asked’ pass for every 10 questions because weve only just met. _

 

**Evan:** _ Ok… Can you ask ffirst? _

Connor let out a huff of a laugh, a small smile tugging at his lips. How had he known Evan was going to ask him to do that?

 

**Connor:** _ sure :) ill start with an easy one, what subjects are you taking at school? _

 

**Evan:** _Um, English 3, Modern Lit, Theatrre Arts, Environental Science, Precalculus, Music Theoryy, and uh… crap I’m miasing something. Animal sscience!_

 

**Connor:** _cool. i also do english 3 and music theory, along with astronomy, band, music fundamentals and algebra 2. now its your turn to ask…_

 

**Evan:** _Right, do you ddo anything outside of shcool?_

 

**Connor:** _i dont have a job or anything but i perform with this community band thing? thats alright i guess… what about you?_

 

**Evan:** _ I worked at Ellison State Park over the summmer. I really like trees? _

 

Connor smiled forcing himself to resist reminding Evan that he already knew about the boys love for trees - it was in his profile after all. Instead he simply decided to ask a slightly more bizarre question.

 

**Connor:** _ pizza or burgers? why? _

 

**Evan:** _Pizza I gguess? It’s just like, simple? And everyone can usually find something they like?_

 

**Connor:** _yeah i get that, i prefer pizza too._

 

**Evan:** _ Ccool… So whats your favourtie type of pizza? _

 

**Connor:** _mine is super boring, youll probs laugh… but i really prefer just plain cheese._

 

**Evan:** _Oh yay, mine is plain cheeese too!_

 

**Evan:** _Not that that matters. Like we won’t be eating pizza together anytime soon or anything. I mean unless you want to? Ddoyouwantot?_

 

A little taken aback by the sudden possible date invitation Connor froze for a second before replying.

 

**Connor:** _ yes! of course i want to! what are you doing for lunch on saturday? _

 

Obviously the second he had frozen made Evan get more anxious and think he had asked something too forward or too soon because less than a second after Connor hit the send button he got another message from Evan.

 

**Evan:** _nnnvere miinds  yoou donttt ohabe too i was justtt thinking  myaybe it wwas somthing you might waaant to do.. You seeem really cool but of course you dwouldbnt want to go out with me_

 

**Evan:** _Wait. You said yyes? Satuturday sooundss good. Juust let me ask my mmom?_

 

Connor couldn’t resist letting a smile come across his face and suddenly he was glad his parents hadn’t followed through on their threat to take away his door so his family couldn’t see him smiling like a goof. He had a date. Not just a date, but a date with a really cute boy who liked trees and theatre and seemed to actually like him.

 

**Connor:** _yeah of course. theres this quiet little place a few blocks from me, the pizza connection, we could go there? um, do you want me to pick you up or meet you there? im not fussed as long as youre comfortable._

 

**Evan:** _ Mmmy mom ssiad yes as long as she ccan meet you firstt, so i ggues pick me up? _

 

**Connor:** _its 11:30? why did you ask your mom now? anyway, thats fine by me._

 

Connor sighed, remembering that he should probably get to bed seeing as he had school in the morning and if he skipped again Cynthia might just kill him. 

 

**Evan:** _yyeah shees a nurse. She works really sstrgne hours…_

 

**Connor:** _got it. this is gonna sound really lame, but i should probably get to bed - I actually have to go to school tomorrow… can we talk in the morning?_

 

**Evan:** _Sssure. I have school too. Ggoodnight Connor._

 

**Connor:** _night evan_

 

Connor flopped back on the bed, checking his phone was plugged in to charge before turning out the lamp and drifting off to sleep with a rare genuine smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couple things I need to address real quick:  
> 1\. In this fic, they are both seniors in High School - so they're both 17. I've heard that in the States, Tinder is only available for people over 18, however here in Australia it works a little different. If you're between 13 & 17 (inclusive) you can use it but the app will only show you people in that age group and likewise your profile is only shown to others in that age group. Thats how it works for the purposes of this fic!  
> 2\. I'm from Australia, so that will probably show in my writing! For the most part I'm trying to use US spellings, especially in Connor and Evans texts, but occasionally I'll slip up. Also I REALLY DONT KNOW HOW SCHOOL WORKS IN THE STATES! So when school stuff comes up, please forgive me for things that aren't necessarily acurate? I've done some research, but its by no means perfect. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Please follow me on Tumblr @broadwayandacoffee for updates and don't forget to leave a comment/kudos because they keep me writing!


	3. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More messages (I promise that's not going to be the summary for every chapter!) Heidi is #momgoals and the boys text in class.

“Good morning sunshine!” Heidi said with far too much positivity in her voice for 6 o’clock in the morning as she walked across Evan’s small bedroom to open the blinds, forcing him to wake up and get ready for school. As much as Evan appreciated the wake up call, he sometimes wished he could just roll over and go back to sleep rather than having to deal with interacting with people while pretending everything was fine. But at least today might just be a better day, because today was Thursday meaning there was just one more day until his first ever date. Yes, the idea of going on a date was actually rather terrifying, especially with someone he didn’t  _ really _ know, but his mom was going to meet Connor first, and Connor hadn’t seemed to mind the idea of meeting Heidi, so he couldn’t be too bad.

 

Sighing he rolled out of bed and started his morning routine off with a precisely 3 minute shower, just the right length for Evan to feel sufficiently clean without worrying he had done too much damage to the environment. After his shower, he got dressed and went down to the kitchen where he found his mom cooking an omelette for him while eating her own. 

 

“Mom you really d-didn’t have to make me breakfast” Evan yawned, still slightly tired despite his shower. 

 

“Nonsense honey! I was making myself one and figured it would be unfair to leave you out.” Of course Heidi would claim it was no trouble, she never wanted to risk Evans anxiety spiking over something she could control. But nevertheless Evan just smiled a sleepy smile and said “thanks Mom”.

 

After a few minutes of silence while Heidi finished cooking, he had an omelette sitting in front of him and his mother beside him on a stool at their small kitchen island. Before he had a chance to take a bite of the delicious looking breakfast, his mom was talking again.

 

“So tell me more about this boy, uh Connor was it, that you’ll be seeing on Saturday? How did you two meet again?” Evan sighed, he knew his mom was fairly open to things, hell, she had been the one to suggest trying Tinder, but he just wasn’t sure she had been expecting him to actually go on a real life date.

 

“Um, remember when you suggested I try Tinder for some less stressful social interaction?” He paused, taking a breath. “Well he’s the only guy I matched with and I didn’t even look at his profile properly but it just happened and then we talked about pizza and then I kinda sorta accidentallyaskedhimout” he noticed his mom stifle a laugh.

 

“You asked him out?” Heidi asked with a degree of surprise to her voice before continuing to say “I’m so proud of you honey!” and clearly trying to resist hugging him while he was eating. It was then that Heidi’s phone started blaring the last chorus of ‘Beautiful’ from Heathers signaling it was 7:00 and time for her to leave for work.  

 

“I’m working a double shift today, so I won’t be home until around 2 tomorrow morning. There are some frozen burritos from a few nights ago in the freezer for dinner. I love you, have a good day at school sweetie!” And with a brief hug she was out the door and Evan was alone in the house for the next 30 minutes until he had to leave to catch the bus to school.

 

Finishing up his omelette he rinsed his plate in the sink and went upstairs to brush his teeth, double check he had everything for school and grab a book to read until he had to leave. As he reached his room, he heard the familiar buzz of his phone which was still on his nightstand telling him he had a new notification. Evan grabbed his phone, pocketing it so he could finish up his morning routine and making a mental note to check his phone before he got into his book which for this morning was  _ The Rosie Project _ by Graeme Simsion. After confirming he had all his books from last night’s homework, Evan collapsed onto the downstairs sofa, book in one hand and phone in the other. 

 

Clicking the lock button Evan’s heart skipped a beat as he saw a Notification from Tinder saying Connor has messaged you. He hurriedly entered his combination to unlock his phone and reveal the message.

 

**Connor:** _ morning ev. are you ready for another day of institutionalised torture in the thunderdome? _

 

Was that a Heathers reference? Surely Connor wasn’t also into musical theatre… that would make him too perfect! Evans hands were shaking as he replied.

 

 **Evan:** _Iits not thatt bad. The only isssue is dealing with the otherr kids in my classes and the bus ried ther._

**Evan:** _ aAlso was that a HHeathers refference? _

 

Evans stomach twisted as he waited for a reply. He really wasn’t used to talking to anyone, let alone a cute boy who actually seemed to like him! His phone buzzed again.

 

 **Connor:** _yeah the kids at my school are all terrible. its as if they cant grasp the concept of personal space, constantly knocking into me even if im standing still. it makes me feel a little like this sometimes…_

 

Evan let out a nervous laugh when Connor sent a gif from Inside Out  where Anger’s head catches fire because he’s so mad. While it was kind of cute the way Connor used gifs to express himself, Evan hoped that he wasn’t actually that volatile because what if Evan said something wrong and Connor snapped and then he got hurt and had to go to the hospital and his mom worked at the hospital and she would get so worried that she would try to take away his phone so he couldn’t use Tinder anymore, not that he would want to after such a bad experience, but his phone was like his safety blanket and if his phone went away then he wouldn’t have a chance at dealing with the kids in his classes and he would have to drop out of school and his life would be over before it had even begun. Another buzz.

 

 **Connor:** _you ok? you usually reply straight away…_

 

Evan felt his cheeks heating up turning the lightest shade of pink - Connor had noticed how fast he replied, better yet he was actually concerned about Evans wellbeing, maybe this would be alright after all.

 

 **Evan:** _yyeahh just had to check somthing_

 

If Connor thought too much about this he would see straight through Evans lie, but thankfully he clearly didn’t because his next message came through on a totally different topic, asking if Evan wanted to resume their ‘game’ from last night, which Evan happily agreed to, playing it until he had to leave for school, his book laying forgotten on the couch. 

 

As 7:30 rolled around they had each asked 2 questions and Evan was disappointed to have to say goodbye for the day, just remembering to grab his book to read on the bus trip to school.

 

 **Evan:** _I’lll talk to youu thissafternoon?_

 

**Connor:** _ you bet - maybe before… ;) _

 

Evan wasn’t quite sure what to make of that last comment, especially with the winky face emoticon, but he tried to push it out of his mind as he stuck his headphones in for the walk to the bus stop.

 

The walk and bus trip passed peacefully enough and before he knew it, Evan was at school heading to his first class of the day, Environmental Science. He had initially picked this class because of his passion for trees, thinking it might teach him more about how to look after them and the rest of the environment, but it turned out to be one of the most boring classes Evan was taking. His teacher, Mr Brudney, was a short, stout man with greying hair who must have started teaching at least 20 years before Evan was born and seemed to have gotten stuck in the 80’s, due to his complete inability to figure out how to operate the smartboard or even appreciate the value of modern technology’s place in the classroom. Instead, Mr Brudney decided to simply dictate for the first 25 minutes of each class and then have the students complete questions from a textbook that was at least a decade old. It turned out most of the things brought up in Environmental Science Evan already knew or, more often than not, were so out of date that Evan could cite at least 5 papers proving the teacher wrong. So instead of wasting his time listening to an ancient man give an even more dated lecture, Evan took the class as an opportunity to tune out and work on his homework for his other classes. 

 

His next two classes passed without too much drama, well aside from some kid stealing his seat in precalculus, forcing Evan to sit next to a girl he hadn’t spoken much to before who had introduced herself as Alana Beck. Then he got to English in fourth period, which was looking set to be one of the most boring classes ever until Evan felt a familiar buzz in his pocket. Suddenly grateful for the seating plan that forced Evan to sit in the third row by the wall of the classroom, he quietly slipped his phone out of his pocket struggling to hide his smile upon seeing the notification

 

_ You have a new message from Connor _

 

He tried to subtly unlock his phone to read the message, his hands shaking even more than usual for fear of being caught. 

 

**Connor:** _ what’s your favourite kind of soda? _

 

Suppressing a smile, Evan realised he had to make a decision of whether to message back with an answer or remind Connor that he was in class and shouldn’t be texting. On the one hand, Mrs Hobbs was teaching the world's most boring lesson on textual analysis which seemed to be covering only the most basic of text features even though they had learned all that in freshman year, not to mention Evan really did want to talk to Connor. But on the other hand, if he got caught then he would get detention or maybe even sent to the principal's office and then his mom would have to leave work to come get him and then she would be mad and then he won’t be able to go on his date on Saturday because he will be grounded indefinitely. Then Evan made what was possibly the stupidest decision of his life, he texted the mysterious boy.

 

 **Evan:** _why are you texting me? aren’t you in calss? FYI its totally your fault if i get grounded and cantt come out on Ssaturday!_

 **Evan:** _But mmy favourite soda is lemonad_

 

Evan shoved his phone in his pocket and tried to pay attention to Mrs Hobbs but before he had even had a chance to figure out what she was trying to tell the class about, Evan felt his phone vibrate again, and after establishing that Mrs Hobbs really wasn’t the most, aware, sort of teacher, he pulled it back out and settled into his chair to read Connors message.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back - finally! If you follow me on tumblr, you already know I've been super sick the last few weeks and haven't been able to write. But now I'm back and I'm going to try my hardest to get out a chapter each week! Chapter 4 is half written already, so I SHOULD have it out next Wednesday at the latest!
> 
> Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed! Please follow me on Tumblr @broadwayandacoffee for updates and don't forget to leave a comment/kudos because they keep me writing!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure Ev would be so nervous his hands would shake while he typed and Con would be the type to just ignore the basic rules of grammar and punctuation. But it's SURPRISINGLY HARD to make purposeful typos without them looking like purposeful typos?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Please follow me on Tumblr @broadwayandacoffee for updates and don't forget to leave a comment/kudos because they keep me writing!


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